FBI saves 11-year-old kidnap-girl from uncle after high speed chase

A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after police found a missing Charlotte girl in Washington, D.C.

Arieyana Simone Forney, 11, had been missing since her grandparents were found murdered in Charlotte, in their home off of on Glencannon Drive, according to a report by WSOCTV.

The report said that around 8 p.m., authorities received a call from an unspecified female inside a car. The female said that she had been kidnapped and was able to tell dispatch exactly where she was. Police immediately began to search for the car, described as a 2005 white Chevrolet Impala.

When police located the car and attempted to pull it over, the driver sped away. After a brief police chase, the vehicle crashed into another car.

CMPD Major Mike Smathers reportedly described what happened after police received the call

“The D.C. Metro Police flooded that area and were looking for this car, our White Impala, that we’d been broadcasting and were able to locate that car and they were able to take the occupants of that car into custody and recover Arieyana safely.”

Twenty-five year old Nikkia Cooper was found in the car as well, and was taken into custody by police. Cooper is being held on drug charges, and investigators are looking into whether Cooper was involved in the kidnapping and murders.

The man who allegedly kidnapped the girl is her uncle. The man, Curtis Atkinson Jr., is also accused of killing his parents, Curtis Atkinson Sr. and Ruby Atkinson, by setting their house on fire.

Arieyana was reported missing when her grandparent’s bodies were found in their home. Firefighters found the bodies after responding to a fire at the home. Dispatchers received the call when a fire alarm alerted authorities after it detected smoke in the home.

Atkinson Jr. was questioned by police after his brother, Arieyana’s father, was found dead in 2013. The case remains unsolved.